Need some advice....

tulips_and_firearms · Newbie Joined: 29 Feb 2004 Posts: 5 City: eastbourne

hey. im vairly new to wakeboarding, i got a rinker 212 boat. quite a beast. obrien buzz board and quuer bindings. i can do simple tricks and grabs, but cnt get enough height. my dad is making a 9ft wakboarding tower i hoping this will help. ive also orderd some new obrien ion bindings.
what other advice could you guys give me.
also im only 5ft 6 my board is a 140. is this the right size for me. i find it quite hard to spin maybe this is why.

please reply cheersxx

waker · Newbie Joined: 12 Jun 2003 Posts: 35 City: Wildomar

My first piece of advise would be to talk Dad out of making a 9 foot Tower.
Around 6' - 6'6" from the floor is plenty high enough. You could probably go a little smaller on the board like a 134-136.

BurkeViper · Posted: Apr 01, 2004 3:26 pm Post subject:

tulips_and_firearms, some people like bigger boards and some like smaller boards. It's personal preference (practically everything is wakeboarding is). The reason you're probably not getting enough height is because you're doing something wrong. So for the advice; read up on the proper way of doing that. Also, the 140 will give you more pop than a 134-136 (like waker suggested). While you may have a big board; hence why you may not be able to do the bigger tricks you want (some say that the board is harder to twirl around).

Hope this helps

wesgardner · Posted: Apr 01, 2004 5:37 pm Post subject:

Hey tulips_and_firearms,

Another suggestion, get a no stretch Spectra mainline. There have been a bunch of posts on getting/ not getting enough air. It's all about technique and timing. Use the Search function and you'll find alotta stuff. Yet another suggestion, take a look at your wake, maybe some sacs in the boat are needed....

Here's an exerpt from something salmon_tacos wrote on the subject - it made alotta sense to me (hope he doesn't mind me stealing his stuff???!!!***)

The thing that will give you big air is upward pressure on the bottom of your board. Here are the steps to obtaining that:

1. You are travelling sideways approaching the wake (edging).

2. As you get to the wake, there is great tension on the rope and you are resisting it by edging back away from the boat. (This is why people talk about progressive edging. If you put a lot of tension in right from the beginning, you'd just get going really fast, horizontally, but you want the most tension at the wake)

3. As you run into the wake (a ramp), the pressure created by your edging and pulling is redirected upward.

4. You should "stand tall" through the wake, i.e. don't let off your edge and don't bend your knees. Resist that upward push with your body and it will launch you.

If you let off your edge, one of two things will happen: a). You will not get any pop and will cut right through the wake or b). You will get pop but you won't like it because you be launched into some crazy front roll or whatever and eat it.

The more tension you have when you hit the wake, the more upward pop you will get. Imagine hitting the wake with very little resistance (not edging). The most that will happen is you'll ride over the wake sort of like a really soft and small skateboard ramp and not get much air.

Now imagine that when you are riding up the wake, your edging and line tension are sinking the board down into the face of the wake. Imagine the feeling of shoving a beach ball under water. That quick buildup of pressure and it's release is what you feel as vertical pop.

good luck

Wes